My Experiences at Occupy St. Louis

by Robb Saul

Sign at the edge of Kiener Plaza in St. Louis

A movement, Occupy Wall Street, which started as a small grassroots protest in New York has spread throughout the United States
and world. I attended the Saint Louis, Missouri chapter, Occupy St. Louis twice in recent weeks.
The movement at large has gotten a lot of flak from the corporate media for not having a centralized voice or message.
The movement itself has a larger view rooted in history.

A movement ended by an assassins bullet, April 4, 1968

If the various "Occupy" movements were to have one centralized leader it runs the risk of dying if something happened to
the leader. Instead of having a centralized leader the movement relies on consensus votes at General Assembly (GA).
GA is held twice a day at Occupy St. Louis and from there the decisions are brought up, discussed and voted on.
It is a democratic movement and relies upon group leadership.
The movement is built upon the structures put in place by the country's founding fathers. Below is an outline of the GA consensus
model used by Occupy St. Louis and other Occupy movement's across the country and world.

The consensus model used by the various Occupy movements

I will break down other points of the movement in upcoming posts. I will also give my opinions on the media criticism
of the movement and address the criticism of people pointing out that the participants have been seen using products
made by corporations.